Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
First, what is going on in Ukraine is not for the European Union or against Russia. It is about the Ukrainian people’s dignity and destiny. They are tired of a corrupt government which acts like a tyrant, robbing and looting from its people, and they hate a judicial system where…
"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship…
Atheists love to embarrass Christians with a snide reference to the story of Elisha setting two bears upon some helpless children. What nobody, even Christians, seem to get is the “Covenant significance” of all the players in the story, harking back to Moses. The prophets were, after all, God’s “repo…
Preaching is in trouble. The classic models of the preacher as teacher of doctrine or as herald of the gospel are flawed, and don’t hit home in the postmodern world, which is oriented to images and mystery rather than to linear discourse and rationality. Trygve Johnson suggests an alternative that…
The following remarks were given to introduce the first annual Nevin Lectures, February 7, 2014. Trinity House was founded in 2012 to promote the reformation of the church by training pastors, future pastors, and lay people in Scripture and liturgical theology. We believe the church exists for the life of…
We can gain basic insights into the nature and function of the tabernacle by considering the biblical terms and phrases used for that structure. Exodus 25:1-9 begins the lengthy instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, and it uses some of the key terms for understanding the theology of the…
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In her recent book The Mirror of the Self , Shadi Bartsch argues that ancient notions of introspection and self-examination do not employ the image of the mirror in the way we do in post-Cartesian philosophy. In the words of the TLS reviewer, for the ancients “the mirror was the…
Wilken summarizes Augustine’s social vision of perfection this way: “This peace for which the city of God yearns is a ‘perfectly ordered and harmonious fellowship in the enjoyment of God,’ a peace of ‘enjoying one another in God.’ Notice that Augustine’s language is social, not individualistic. He does not say,…
When Plato thought about politics, he thought about an ideal city (at least in the Republic ). Not Augustine. Augustine recognized that Plato had portrayed “what kind of city ought there to be.” But Augustine was after something different. He presented an actual human society, a city of God in…
Aquinas wrote: “If the teacher determines the question by appeal to authorities only, the student will be convinced that the thing is so, but will have acquired no knowledge or understanding, and he will go away with an empty mind.”
In his wonderful book, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought , Robert Louis Wilken criticizes the Formula of Chalcedon as “formulaic and abstract,” which described Jesus as “one person,” but “seemed to divide Christ into a divine nature that, for example, healed the sick and raised the dead and a…
Alcinous, a pagan philosopher of the second century AD claimed that God is “eternal, ineffable, self-sufficient, without need . . . and perfect in every respect.” The only way to know such a God was to ascend from earthly things to higher realities: “First one contemplates the beauty found in…
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